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From Odysseus to Luke Skywalker to Harry Potter, a great hero is timeless.
A “baby face” refers to facial features that resemble those of a child, creating an appearance of youth and innocence. In professional wrestling, a “babyface” or “face” refers to the hero, the storyline protagonist whom fans are meant to rally behind.
Wrestling babyfaces show respect to other faces, fans, and neutral parties such as the referee. Babyfaces are pitted against villainous, cheating heels and overcome them while still following the rules. Often, faces stand for something other than their personal interests and can embody a larger virtue.
Dusty Rhodes stood for the working-class everyman. John Cena stood for hustle, loyalty, and respect. Bret Hart stood for excellence and integrity. Even the occasional anti-hero babyface such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had a strong moral code and stood for rebellion against corrupt and oppressive authority.
Today’s WWE features a mix of transitional babyfaces and heels as well as characters who break the mold by representing something of a mix. It’s easy to get behind traditional babyfaces who represent timeless values.
Increasingly, however, several WWE wrestlers positioned as heroes act in morally ambiguous or inconsistent ways, leaving fans unsure whether to fully invest in them.
Today, we look at babyfaces in the men’s division and evaluate who is effectively embracing time-honored roles—and who is falling short.
Rising Star of the Week: Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes is the most successful traditional babyface of the current generation. Cody‘s return to WWE told a compelling story of redemption, overcoming past failures in an honorable and admirable way. Cody is easy to like and get behind. His earnest love of wrestling and the fans is palpable. He succeeds in wrestling without taking shortcuts, shows respect to others who deserve it, and embodies everything that is admirable in athletic competition. Cody comes off as personable, the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with.
Cody has not been perfect in his adherence to these principles. When facing off against the cheating Randy Orton at WrestleMania, briefly stooped to bending the rules himself.
When CM Punk flipped his belt over his shoulder at last weekend’s Fanatics fest, it brushed Cody in the face. Cody took offense and assumed Punk’s intention was to slight him, coming across as self-centered and thin-skinned.
The ultimate judge of Cody’s success is his crowd responses. They have been the most consistently positive of any wrestler in the past decade.
Fans are always interested in change, and many have clamored for Cody to turn heel. That could work—but there should be no urgency to pull the trigger.
As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Cody as a babyface just works far too well to mess with.
Runner-up: Oba Femi
The Ruler stands for greatness and integrity. He never lies, treats fans and fellow competitors with respect unless their actions disqualify them, and he is earnest in his desire to be the best. He doesn’t take shortcuts, cheap shots, or interfere in others’ matches. He doesn’t cheat or look for the easy way out. He takes on all challengers and does not duck competition. When wronged, he pursues justice without going overboard in vengeance.
Femi has almost always been pitted against heel opponents, allowing fans to wholeheartedly root for him in nearly every encounter.
His success as a top babyface has been remarkable—if not flawless. Femi has taken a few ill-advised detours from the hero’s path. His apparent unprovoked assault on police officers protecting Brock Lesnar on last week’s Raw came off as reckless and callous. His later explanation that they were impostors felt confusing and only partially repaired the damage.
Still early in his career, there are many ways things could go wrong in the year ahead. Oba could be portrayed as petty or jealous, could break the rules, or come off as overly proud in his promos. However, if he stays the course, Oba has the potential to eclipse Cody as WWE’s top babyface of this era.
Second Runner-up: LA Knight
LA Knight embodies confidence without being overbearing. He is the ultimate truth-teller, even when it is unpopular calling out top stars like Roman Reigns and Jay Uso for hypocrisy and rule breaking.
He is brave without being reckless, boldly facing daunting odds in his pursuit of victory and justice. He is fiercely proud without being overbearing.
What really sets night apart is his delivery on the mic. Nobody cuts a babyface promo like he does. Never at a loss for words, Knight speaks with conviction, blending sharp humor with infectious catchphrases that ignite the audience.
For these reasons, Knight has consistently outperformed his push – and the crowd response reflects it. Only poor booking holds him back. Being booked to lose so often punishes fans for investing in him and conditions them to pull back emotionally. Pitting Knight against The Bloodline – some of the most popular stars in the company – forces fans to choose between favorites or leaves them conflicted.
Although many see him as best suited for the upper mid-card, Knight has all the tools of a main event star. If he keeps performing at this level, WWE creative may have no choice but to give him that opportunity.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Fading Star of the Week: Seth Rollins
Seth Rollins is the WWE’s greatest in-ring performer of the last ten years. He consistently delivers exciting, athletic, hard-hitting matches, more than any other performer. Only his struggles to project an effective, coherent persona have kept him from being the company’s top star.
Rollins has particularly struggled in the hero’s role ever since returning from injury.
His promos often come off as uninspired, relying on tired, catchphrases, and gimmick-heavy buzzwords that don’t quite land such as calling himself a “visionary” and “revolutionary” without presenting a clear vision or cause.
Thrust into SummerSlam’s main event scene, Rollins has failed to generate strong excitement. Being cast opposite the ultra-popular Roman Reigns hasn’t helped, nor has the fact that fans have seen this matchup multiple times over the past decade. Breaking narrative immersion by suggesting Reigns was gifted championships and lacks wrestling ability only made matters worse.
More than anyone in WWE, Rollins would benefit from tighter promo scripting and a clearer character direction. If he is to succeed as a babyface, he needs to tap into what fans really like about him while viewing away from meta nonsense and failed catchphrases.
First Runner-Up: The Bloodline
Undermining the support they enjoy for being cool, bad-ass stars, The Bloodline largely behave like heels. They regularly bully their opponents, cheat to gain unfair advantage in matches, and come off as disrespectful and arrogant.
Roman Reigns acts as if he is superior everyone he interacts with. Jimmy and Jay have played the role of remorseless lackeys. Even Jacob Fatu, honor-bound to serve against his wishes, betrayed his supposed long-time friend, Royce Keys. The Bloodline are regularly pitted against fan-favorite babyfaces.
If the plan is to have the group complete a turn to become heels at SummerSlam, this presentation could work out in the end and all will be forgiven.
Until then, it leaves fans, feeling confused and uninvested in storylines even as they raise their index finger and chant “OTC.”
Second Runner-Up: Trick Williams
Trick Williams is a paradox.
Let’s talk about it.
Debuting on the main roster in winter, Trick was portrayed as a heel, but was cheered by fans who admire his cool, stylish presentation.
During WrestleMania season, he began leaning into babyface behavior in response to crowd reactions. Since then, however, Trick has been booked against both heels and faces while reverting to heel-like tactics and inconsistent character beats.
With these mixed signals, fan enthusiasm has noticeably cooled. It’s unclear whether WWE wants fans to support Trick or root against him. Whether he’s meant to be hero or villain, the current lack of clarity is undermining his momentum—and it isn’t working.
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